The role of the mobile terminal in today's communications networks is rapidly becoming more and more integrated with the Internet model, as the mobile terminal adapts to user's demands for added functionality. The mobile terminal, for example, has evolved from a simple device offering voice only capability to a device fully capable of browsing the Internet and providing rich content communication to include voice, data, imaging, video, etc.
Conventional communication methods with mobile terminals typically require active intervention by the users in possession of those mobile terminals. Specifically, today's mobile terminals essentially allow contact with the user of the mobile terminals through the use of voice or data calls that may be initiated with the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). The use of various messaging technologies involving the mobile terminal may also involve messaging services such as the Short Messaging Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). Alternatively, the user of the mobile terminal may access information services on the Internet through the use of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) which is based on Internet standards such as HyperText Markup Language (HTML), eXtensible Markup Language (XML), and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
As mobile terminal sophistication continues to develop, the mobile terminal's informational role in the mobile communication age tends to evolve from one of a uni-directional information sink, to more of a bi-directional information access point, whereby information gathered by the mobile terminal may find application with other users within the communication network. In such an instance, information gathered and stored within each user's mobile terminal may, to an increasing extent, be made available to other users in the communication network, whether they are land based or mobile themselves. For example, mobile terminals having imaging capability, may capture images and/or video clips that may then be shared with other users within the mobile IP network. Additionally, mobile terminals having proximity connection capability, may access information contained within devices that are in close proximity and may likewise share that information with others in the mobile IP network.
As a precaution, however, mobile operators place firewalls within their networks in order to counteract possible attacks and flooding of the mobile IP network. As such, access to the mobile terminals that are operating behind these firewalls is typically limited to outgoing traffic that is initiated by the users of these mobile terminals and the resulting incoming traffic. Most other requests originating from outside the firewall are trapped by the firewall and are prevented from reaching their final destination, i.e., the mobile terminal.
Prior art solutions may provide a dedicated access point to the mobile terminals within the mobile IP network, whereby any firewalls that may impede information access requests to the mobile terminals are removed. Such a remedy, however, is outweighed by the risks associated with, for example, Denial of Service (DoS) attacks that may occur in the absence of the firewalls. Other prior art solutions provide holes within the firewalls, such that access requests to static IP addresses, for example, are allowed. IP enabled mobile terminals, however, are not generally provided with static IP addresses, but are rather allocated IP addresses using, for example, the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), which renders static holes within the firewalls useless to the mobile terminals.
Accordingly, there is a need in the communications industry for a system, apparatus and method that allows access to information from within a mobile terminal that is behind a firewall. In particular, interesting information either contained within the mobile terminal or information that may be accessed by proximity connections to the mobile terminal, should be made available to the network via the mobile terminal even when the mobile terminal is protected by firewall access restrictions.